


river wider

by tciddaemina



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: 250 words, Character Study, Charon - Freeform, Gen, episodic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:08:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27431017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tciddaemina/pseuds/tciddaemina
Summary: Moments in the life of Charon, bargeman of the river Styx.
Kudos: 19





	1. obol

**Author's Note:**

> Character study of our best boy Charon, written in 250 word prompt installments mostly as a way of not going insane while I do Nanowrimo this year. Updates, if and when they happen, will probably be utterly random and sporadic, so don't be expecting a schedule for this yeah.

Charon enjoys coin. There's a certainty to it, a constancy. Silver is still silver no matter its shape, and where fabric may fray and fade, silver keeps it temper. Two hundred years can pass and yet mortal men will still fight for the same piece of silver that their forefathers once did, spilling blood and honor alike just to hold it in their hands once more. 

There are few things in the world that hold such certainty. The gods, of course - they are immutable, unchangeable, as old as the world itself. There is air and water, earth and darkness, the elements from which all things are drawn. The universe its not without its constants, but few save coin are ones that the mortals have had a hand in creating for themselves. Wars have been started over love and hate, men killed by the thousands for the sake of pride and avarice, but it is coin, coin above all things, which consumes men. 

Charon accepts another tarnished obol from a mortal shade, letting them pass, quaking and quivering, onto his barge along with the rest. The coin is cool in his hand, bright against his pale skin, even dirty and blackened as it is, and Charon closes his fist around it, listening to it clink as it joins the rest in his pocket. 

Yes, if he has to covet something let it be coin. It at least is a constant that one can rely on, as much as anything is. 


	2. offerings

Charon doesn't receive offerings. Bribes are one thing, and those are part and par for the course, but its not quite the same thing. He sees them sometime, forgotten nothings left along the banks of the Styx - wilting flowers, already browning from the chill of the dead earth, chalices of dark wine spiced with cinnamon and sharp citrus. Every god has their preference. To Hades the mortals offer blood split, animals sacrificed at his alter, while Aphrodite, lady of love and all that is beautiful demands beauty in turn, doves carved from pale marble and flowers that blossom even as they're cut from their stems, laid upon the floor of her temples on the chance that she might one day look upon them and be pleased by what she sees. 

Others, Charon knows, are more humble in their offerings. Hermes has a soft spot for all those who carry his vocation and gives his blessing in exchange for stolen coin, whether gold or copper, and soft feathers picked from the side of the road. Dandelions blown, just to see the seeds fly. It's more generous than most of the gods, that much can be said. 

As for Charon... Well, he supposes that the closest he gets is the bottles of nectar Zagreus brings him every so often. Still, Charon thinks as he opens another, passing it to share with Hermes, sitting perched on the prow of his ship, perhaps even that is not so little a thing after all. 


End file.
